Digid (dutch government ID app) not scanning QR code

Toophei8

@JuliaDerchter: I am not dutch and I know nothing about Digid. But the few QR-Codes found via Google-Image-Search can easily be read by the App Binary Eye on my GrapheneOS.

pascalw

I noticed this as well. The app uses Google Mobile Vision to scan QR codes, which probably depends on Google Play Services. Shame!

finitefutility

I have the same issue on the latest version. Probably worth emailing them to make them aware of it, hopefully they're interested in taking a different approach?

Edit: just noticed this about Mobile Vision:

The Mobile Vision API is deprecated and no longer maintained. It is now a part of ML Kit which includes all new on-device ML capabilities.

So maybe they have to move anyway?

burner

And here I was thinking I was alone in this issue. I can successfully scan other QR codes (Thuisbezorgd.nl, etc) but DigiD absolutely refuses to capture the QR codes. It's been the downfall quite some times, and I have to resort to logging in via Username and Password (though some sites that rely on DigiD don't properly acknowledge the "handshake" that happens when logging in via U/P). It's been a continual frustration for about a year now. Where is the solution?

pascalw

I've reported the issue. Hopefully they can replace it with another solution. There are good open source QR code scanners available.

Even better: if they could open source the app like many other government software we could fix it ourselves 🙂

MetropleX

pascalw There are good open source QR code scanners available.

Indeed the default Secure Camera app that comes with GrapheneOS is one ^_^

finitefutility

MetropleX
Interesting.. would it be relatively easy to borrow that code and implement in another app?

pascalw

GOS camera app uses the ZXing open source library for QR scanning. Generally it's pretty easy to swap out QR code libraries.

In the meantime I've contacted DigiD and the first response was "We don't support GrapheneOS, only Android is supported.". Let's see if I can make it through to their 2nd line support.

finitefutility

pascalw
I contacted them too, saying I use GrapheneOS and asking whether they are using Google Mobile Vision and that it is deprecated but got a very boilerplate response on the level of... "try again".

Maybe we can coordinate to get things through to their technical support? Did you reference that open source library to them yet?

I am kind of surprised all other apps with QR scanning are working fine.. What libraries would they be using? Or have DigiD not implemented theirs properly?

finitefutility

pascalw In the meantime I've contacted DigiD and the first response was "We don't support GrapheneOS, only Android is supported.". Let's see if I can make it through to their 2nd line support.

Any luck so far? I've sent a reply asking whether the fault is due to Google Mobile Vision (and that it is deprecated) and asking for the use of open source libraries.

strcat

JuliaDerchter Do you have both Play services and the Play Store installed? It may depend on them being granted permissions you haven't given to them such as enabling Storage Scopes.

finitefutility

strcat
It doesn't ask for much permissions other than network, sensors, camera and notifications. Hopefully we can convince them to take inspiration from GOS camera!

agwmpdledrbg

I have send emails repeatedly to the developers of DigID well over a year ago (Logius), and they have never even bothered to respond.

The app used to work - including scanning QR codes - around a year ago (without Google play services!). Eventually an update caused it to break. I avoided updating as long as possible but eventually the old version I had was deprecated and did no longer work because it was too old.

It's a shame that apps like this are dependent on third party services and that it doesn't work natively.

Nice to see fellow people from the Netherlands using GrapheneOS btw, we're one of few and I personally don't know anyone else that uses GOS.

Best of luck with getting through to Logius!

finitefutility

They have asked me to email them with my BSN and a phone number they can reach me on, so they can get more information. I may email them to check what they will say. I wasn't aware of Logius, pretty bad they don't bother to respond...

agwmpdledrbg

You can try contacting Logius here, maybe that'll work. https://logius.nl/contact/formulieren/algemeen-contactformulier

finitefutility

The app works for me on the latest version 6.5.4 but I'm not sure it was because of that. It looks like FireFox wasn't generating the QR code image correctly when compared to Chrome... is this what others have noticed as well?

Uphill1945

finitefutility Working for me as well.

For your Firefox, if it looks like a weird colored blob thingy then u should be able to fix that in the firefox settings I had that as well a while ago. Has something to do with the privacy settings and fingerprinting I believe.

finitefutility

Uphill1945 Thanks for pointing that out, I had to disable privacy.resistFingerprinting in about:config for it to work now. Left the other default fingerprinting settings enabled (as default).

pascalw

@finitefutility just double checking; scanning the Digid QR codes with the app now works for you? I'm on 6.5.4 and it's still not working for me, no matter which desktop browser I use. I'm running without (sandboxed) Google Play Services though.

finitefutility

pascalw hey yeah it works but I do have Google Play Service set up...

And mildly enjoying how they were forced to publish a snapshot of their code... Glad to see transparency requests can sometimes work in government!